A Welcome Message to New SketchUcation Members

bvnni · 15 Mar 2010, 17:20

Hi everyone!

I just joined today after getting reacquainted with the Google/Free SketchUp. When it first came out, I downloaded it to give it a try, but found it to be a bit beyond my needs as a hobbyist. As time went on, my time photographing automobiles rekindled my love for automotive design. Much to my excitement, I noticed on a few blueprint sites that they were using SU to create some amazing renderings. So, here I am! There's a sneaky suspicion this will also further my love/appreciation for architecture. And, it would be interesting to experiment with some fashion project applications. Who knows, maybe if I get on well with SU I'll look into V-ray for it. It's a big purchase, but gosh are the results amazing!

I look forward to chatting with you all and learning as much as possible. Cheers!

Gaieus · 16 Mar 2010, 12:19

Hi bvnni and welcome!

Looking forward to those models/renders!

alex2402 · 16 Mar 2010, 18:28

Hi I'm Carlos,

Thanks guys for this site, I really enjoy learning with all your tutorials and comments.

Blessing for all you..

Thank you.

Gaieus · 17 Mar 2010, 12:38

Hi Carlos (or Alex???) and welcome to the forums!

alex2402 · 18 Mar 2010, 00:26

@gaieus said:

Hi Carlos (or Alex???) and welcome to the forums!

Jee Carlos Alexander!!! Thank you Gai

bdykes66 · 25 Mar 2010, 17:20

Another Newbie here... I am a custom cabinet designer/draftsman/engineer and I am attempting to use SU to create cover pages with renderings for print sets and renderings for the shop to use during construction- and I naturally ran into a problem. How do I get two complex geometries like crown moulding to join at a corner and create the 45 degree miter? Interior corners I can do (sort of) but exterior corners are eluding me.
Help me, Obi Wan, you're my only hope!!

Thanks-
Brandon

Gaieus · 25 Mar 2010, 17:24

Hi Brandon and welcome. Please, have a look at these YouTube videos. They are really great at explaining the nature of the Follow me tool:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sketchup+follow+me+tool&search_type=&aq=f

bdykes66 · 25 Mar 2010, 18:36

@gaieus said:

Hi Brandon and welcome. Please, have a look at these YouTube videos. They are really great at explaining the nature of the Follow me tool:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sketchup+follow+me+tool&search_type=&aq=f

Thanks Gaieus, that was exactly what I needed. I could have saved myself some time and frustration if I would have watched all the tutorials instead of just the first few... Ah well...
Thanks again!

jacm · 25 Mar 2010, 18:48

Hi everyone. I just joined a few days ago as a complete beginner. I've done this back to front because I seemed to have made a a few mistakes so my 1st intro is lost in a "black whole".
I've got plenty of time now to learn new things with Sketch Up but SketchUcation seems more to me as a newbie. They are great, and friendly on the 'SketchUp' forum as they all are willing to help but it sometimes goes far above me.
So I'm raring to go, as I already got something new from Gaieus. I'll be a pest by asking a lot of questions as I go along.

jacm

Gaieus · 27 Mar 2010, 08:04

Hi John (again) and welcome (again)

Never mind being a "pest" - after all a forum - especially a "Newbie Forum" is the ideal place for this.

countryman · 27 Mar 2010, 17:09

Hi..I came across this excellent site while searching for woodworking tips and tricks.

I have a couple of questions.....I'm running a Mac Intel (new model) 10.6 and SU keeps on crashing on me. My models are very very simple 2D drawings of a window.

Is there a link to the Sketch-up tools anywhere? One comes across answers in the threads and these may mention a tool that you haven't used...eg x-ray (at least I think it's a tool). It would be great to have a window open on a link where you could go straight to it and look up -x-ray and where it is in the toolset menus and what it briefly does.

Thanks guys

Gaieus · 28 Mar 2010, 09:47

Hi "Countryman" and welcome!

As for your display issues, I will probably not be able to help as I am on a PC although you can try to disable hardware acceleration to check if it is not a graphic card problem - this is under the Sketchup menu > Preferences > OpenGL settings on the Mac.

As for some reference manual, there is an abundance of info in the SU Help Centre like this "Reference Guide"

countryman · 28 Mar 2010, 10:12

Thanks for the welcome. Will check OpenGL although as it is a new Mac I'd have hoped that these issues were long sorted...I found posts about this going back to 2008.

Re reference manual...you've proved my point! Take X-Ray, for example. It doesn't appear anywhere obvious that I can see in that guide. I found it in the Google SketchUp 7 Quick Reference guide under Face Style. But Face Style doesn't appear in the Reference Guide either. Nor could I see Dynamic Components. They are probably there but filed away under something completely different and that is one of my gripes from a new users' perspective....the lack of consistency in presentation and naming/filing of information. I tried searching for X-Ray in Google but then you get many posts with questions that I don't even begin to comprehend.

Using the Search Bar in the Reference Guide does yield results but again proves my point re inconsistency. Putting in x-ray and clicking on the first link takes you to the Styles Browser Face panel. Now is that the same as Face Style? It is. So why not name it the same as the Quick Reference Card?

Gaieus · 28 Mar 2010, 13:44

Well, what i know that on my PC, I can activate a whole bunch of toolbars - including the face styles toolbar - from the View menu > Toolbars. Another place where you shopuld be able to access them is at View menu > Face styles.

Setting and modifying the styles instead of a quick toggle button for X-Ray may not be the best thing as that is always harder/slower than toggling it on/off.

What you can do in X-ray mode is to access edges behind faces, too. So it is not even only a simple "styling" tool but often needed when you want to access something deeply hidden/covered in a complex model.

Richard_ · 1 Apr 2010, 16:09

Hello Everyone. I am a new user and a new member...Richard

GoldenFrog · 3 Apr 2010, 17:42

Hi Richard!

pmolson · 22 Apr 2010, 19:06

Welcome Richard!

paul

Chechi Marquez · 24 Apr 2010, 16:46

Ah, to be a n00b again... wow, I feel young.

So hello everyone, I'm not that new to sketchup, been working on it for 2 years now. But for some reason it didn't occur to me that out there in the vast world of the internet there could be a forum for people like me, now I feel like I've been living under a rock! (a big one btw)

Been lurking around since yesterday, but decided to come out of the shadows to thank the people that have made such useful topics that have helped me realise that sketchup is as unlimited as human imagination is!

Gaieus · 24 Apr 2010, 17:06

Hi Cecilia and welcome!

Hope you find some bits useful here and also you'll show off with your works, too!

JPM · 25 Apr 2010, 15:24

Hello everyone
I am new here and have never used a forum before. I was a Architectural draftsman for round about 18 years. I changed to outside plant fiber optic design when the economy tanked. I started using Google Earth to do base sheets for my design work and ran across Sketch Up a few weeks ago and fell in love. I am out here now trying to soak up everything I can.

I am using the 7.1 free version
There two things I would like to find out.

What is the best way to print architecturally formated drawings,(Plans, Elevations and sections) and save these layouts for editing later?
How do I create a mesh to represent the ground to set my house model on?